


Brotherhood stronger than blood

by Lerya



Series: Lerya's big bag of one-shots [17]
Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL-centric, F/F, F/M, Gen, I accept prompts, M/M, What Could Have Been, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28466091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lerya/pseuds/Lerya
Summary: A collection of ASL-brother centric one shots. Because I need more content of them.Will explore anything I get asked, or that pops up in my mind - everything from AU's, to fix-its to whatever as long as its ASL centric!
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace, Koala/Sabo (One Piece), Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Portgas D. Ace & Whitebeard Pirates, Revolutionary Army & Sabo (one Piece)
Series: Lerya's big bag of one-shots [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831972
Comments: 24
Kudos: 133





	1. A visit to Dandan

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise, here's another fic that will get updated every Monday, except I couldn't wait with it being Ace's birthday and all that.

They had decided to go back to the island all three of them had grown up on, after all, for all that they had amazing crews and had grown while on the sea.

There were also other people who had a hand in raising them to be the men they were today.

With the way Garp and Coby were reorganising the Marines, and most Pirates were left to their own devices, all of them saw this as the perfect opportunity to go and visit both women who had made such an impact on their lives, and who brought them up.

With Luffy now crowned Pirate King, the revolutionaries coming into the light, and the former Whitebeard Pirates, now captained by Marco and Ace, also free of persecution and not expecting any problems with the marines or other people on the sea. The youngest of them had mentioned it one night, while all three groups were eating together on an island in the New World. Saying he wanted to go back to Dawn Island to see Makino and Dandan.

Neither Sabo, nor Ace, had seen a problem with going back, not when they were free to go wherever they wanted – and them going back in the Easy Blue might just comfort gramps.

It did take some planning, as all three crews, if one could count the revolutionaries as a crew, had other duties to their organisation or territories.

Luckily, Dragon had no problem with them going, and gave Sabo time off – citing that the blond hadn’t asked for some time of since they found him at 10 years old. Especially when it was to thank the people who had been there for him as he was growing up.

Marco, as Ace’s co-captain, didn’t mind either that Ace went to visit his home island, up until the moment the other members of the crew found out, and wanted to come along to thank these women themselves. After all, Ace was very loved by their crew, allies included, which was shown a lot more clearly after Marineford.

Luffy, as only Luffy could, just announced to Nami what they were going to do and left it at that. His crew, used to his antics, and knowing they would be traveling with the Whitebeard Pirates, didn’t see any problem with that. Not even when Sabo and Koala came onboard – as to not steer a ship between the two of them.

Both crews had agreed to meet up close to the island they had met the last time, and where Luffy had told his older brothers he wanted to visit Dawn island once again.

Sabo and Koala had been dropped off there, and made their way onto the Thousand Sunny, greeting the other members of the Straw Hat Pirates, and accepting a hug from Luffy when the Pirate King came bounding out of the sleeping quarters.

Waving at Ace who came to stand on the deck of the ship at their side, all three of the ASL-brothers were ready to go back to their home island.

Nami would steer them there, Marco and Ace knowing the woman was much more in tune with the weather, even here in the New world.

It took them a couple of days, with them cutting through the calm belt, it was not a long trip – it wasn’t as if they would travel all the way back to reverse mountain and into Easy Blue again. That would just take too long. Now they were able to make the trip in a little less than a week.

When they made their way into East Blue, they passed some smaller marine vessels, all of them just stopping to let these ships past. Even if they knew both crews wouldn’t make problems until they as marines attacked first. It was still very scary to see an emperor’s ship, and the ship of the Pirate King making their way into backwater East Blue.

When Dawn island came into sight, all three of the ASL-brothers had to laugh at seeing the Red Force already docked there. All of them has suspected Shanks had something going on with Makino, this just verified this.

As they approached the dock, on smaller ships as a ship like the Moby Dick (even if it was a new ship and not the one who faired them to Marineford) wasn’t built to dock at an island this small.

Marco had flown himself and Ace over to the Sunny, so they could go on land together with Koala, Sabo and Luffy. The other members of their crews could follow on their own pace.

Not a lot of people were on the docks, most likely scared off by the ships approaching, not all of them had known about the boys who had once upon a time had grown up here, so to find such crews making their way to their small island.

Some of them had even gone and gotten Shanks, thinking the emperor could at least scare off these other pirates. Only for the redhead to make his way out of party’s bar, look at the ships docked there, start laughing and hug one of the approaching men close with a yelled; “Anchor.”

All the people around them looked like the Emperor greeted the others, obviously knowing them, and putting them at ease. If Shanks knew these people, they couldn’t be the bad sort of pirate.

As he released Luffy, shanks turned back and yelled towards the door, “Makino, the boys are here.”

Makino, probably expecting someone else, stopped just outside the door as she noticed just who was standing in front of her.

A hand made her way over her mouth, as tears made their way over her cheeks, stopping the brothers in their tracks, thinking they had done something wrong.

However, that was dismissed as Makino approached them and hugged them close to her. Ace and Sabo wrapped their arms around her waist, while Luffy wrapped him arms, in total 3 times, around the three of them.

Makino still cried tears of joy at seeing the boys – her boys – here, healthy and happy. She noticed the crews coming onto land, as well the two people standing with Shanks. She knew the orange haired girl was Sabo’s girlfriend, Koala. While the blond next to her was Ace’s co-captain, and his lover.

The only one she was missing, was Luffy’s significant other.

Shanks had made sure to point Usopp to Yasopp the moment the younger sniper came on land, making his way to the Red Force to see his dad who had guard duty on the Red Haired Pirates ship.

Marco and Koala, as well as Shanks promised to look after both crews while the boys made the trek up onto the mountain. Smiling as they entered the forests, they had grown up in. They even made it past their treehouse and were very surprised to see that it was still standing.

Making their way to the bandit hideout further along the path they had taken so many times before. Ace and Luffy had to laugh when their huts dubbed Ace country, and Luffy country were also present, as if the bandits wanted to have a keepsake of the boys they raised from children to young adults.

Ace went and knocked on the door of the hut that still stood strong.

Some stumbling could be heard from inside, before the door was thrown open and the familiar shape of Dandan stood in the door opening.

“What do you…”

She trailed of however when she saw the young men standing in front of her, and they guessed they would make quite the picture.

Ace with how bare chest, as always, now marred by a scar from Akainu’s hit to his back – luckily not all the way through.

Sabo all dressed up, with multiple layers, even if those clothing still consisted of mostly bleus.

And Luffy, with a red captain’s cloak, Roger’s captain cloak over his shoulders. He had found the cloak on Laugh Tale, and after asking Ace, and calling up Rayleigh, he decided to take I with him, and wear is as a cloak.

They looked so different from the boys who had left this island in search of adventure, yet they looked still the same – even more so with the smiles they sported at seeing the people that raised them. Dandan had been joined by some of the other bandits like Dogra and Magra, all of them looking at the boys standing in front of them with wide eyes.

None of them could believe these three were actually standing there.

Dandan was the first to recover and just gathered her boys to her, glad to see them all safe and sound. After Sabo’s believed death, they had been so glad to get news that he wasn’t dead but had amnesia from the blow of the cannon.

Ace, similarly, let them think he was death after that blow from Akainu, it didn’t help that the media reported on his death – trying to calm the civilians with the news that Gol D. Roger’s bloodline was no more. They all threw a party when news spread that he was just injured and was fine after some healing.

Luffy’s stunt where there was radio silence for 2 years had them fearing the worst too but knowing and wanting to hold on to the belief that not all of her boys were killed, Dandan had kept believing that he was fine, and she was proven right, even finding out not long after Luffy’s re-entrance in the world that all three of her boys were fine.

Smiling, all three of the boys hugged Dandan close to them and threw down a bag they were carrying, “here’s your cut, for taking care of us all those years ago.”

Dandan started crying, “as if that matters, I am just happy you’re all here together and fine, instead of death as we feared for a couple of moments.”

Staying with the bandits for some more time, Luffy persuaded them to join them in Foosha where the preparations had started for a great fest in honour of their returned island members. It was a great night, one full of memories, tears of joy, and two mothers happy to see their boys back with them.


	2. Sabo making it in time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The forest formations used in this fic are not mine, they were inspired by this post: https://marcoacesabo.tumblr.com/post/176752695549/sabo-ace-formation-29-ace-backflips-towards
> 
> And are the brainchild of Marcoacesabo.tumblr.com (or Rbooks, I think their main channel name is :) )
> 
> \--
> 
> Surprise! Bet you weren’t expecting that as I usually don’t upload on weekends, and unless you read the recent reviews, or you are part of my Discord Channel, you wouldn’t know I was planning to. But today is my birthday (yay, 28 as of today – the 3rd of January).  
> Enjoy the reading and let me know what you think of it! :D

Sabo knew he didn’t have a lot of time on his hands. He had remembered what had happened to him and regained the memories he lost when the paper came out announcing the execution of Portgas D. Ace.

Ace, who had been his brother once upon a time, but also Ace, who he had forgotten about.

He didn’t doubt that Luffy was already on his way to Marineford as he was hurrying alone to get there too. Luffy wouldn’t let anything happen to Ace, and neither would he – not now he remembered and knew what their brotherhood had meant to him.

He had just rushed off, yelling at Koala and Hack that he needed to save his brothers from getting killed over something as stupid as their bloodline.

He will most likely get in trouble for that, but right now he didn’t care. He had dedicated 10 years of his life to the revolutionary army, the least they could do is let him go and save his brothers the moment he remembers what they were to him.

Getting to Marineford is quite easy, getting on board of a marine vessel even more so, they must be already assured of their victory, if this was how they acted. All arrogant and cocky, even if the ship he got on didn’t even have a vice-admiral on it.

It was just a captain and his crew, making this all the easier, and in the event of a fight, he knew he would be fine.

He could hear the marines on this vessel pondering on why they were doing a public execution of a Whitebeard commander, even if the man in question had been a captain in his own right. They were assuming it had something to do with Whitebeard and a ploy to get the Emperor killed when they executed one of his commanders.

But Sabo knew better, the Marines most likely had found out about Ace’s real name and were going to execute him because of his Father’s legacy. They weren’t even going to execute Ace because of things he had done, but for the things his father had done.

Shaking his head, Sabo hoped he got to Marineford in time to make sure they didn’t lose their older brother. Going by how fast this ship was going, he might actually be there a lot sooner and would have time to snoop around. It served the Marines right, if he could do that, it could be his apology present to Dragon-san.

As he suspected, he had been in Marineford much earlier than the execution, giving him indeed time to scout ahead, and to break into the offices in Marineford itself, gathering intel and taking some files with him.

For the fact that they had called the wrath of an emperor on their necks, the marines here very cool headed, and did not up their security at all.

Shrugging, Sabo went through with his plans, keeping an eye out on the square below, seeing marines gathering and getting ready for the confrontation with the Whitebeard Pirates, and any allies they brought with them.

When a marine passed him, muttering about executor duty, he couldn’t believe his luck. Even more so as the man was about his hight and had blond hair as well. This was too good a chance to pass on.

Clasping his hand over the man’s mouth, he dragged him into a storage room, knocked him out and tied him up with robes he had found some rooms back. Before tying the man up however, he made sure to get his clothes of and dress in them himself.

His own clothes were tied around his waist and legs, giving him the appearance of being a bit stouter there, just as this man was – and it helped to be able to change into his own clothes as soon as he had gotten to his older brother.

Making his way to the square, another marine was waiting for him, calling him by the name of the other he had liberated these clothes from. Turning at the sound of the name, he smiled and excepted the glaive he was handed.

“I swear, you have to use the bathroom at the oddest moments.”

Just smiling and shrugging, the other man hummed.

“Still, they should bring in the prisoner at any moment, so get ready.”

Nodding, Sabo took a hold of the glaive and made his way to a platform just of the execution platform where they had to wait for Ace to arrive and be led onto the platform, most likely chained to it too, going by the seastone ring he could see protruding from the platform.

While he was getting nervous, he wouldn’t let it show, he would save Ace, no matter the cost, and get him back to his crew. He was sure to other’s crew would mind giving him a ride after all this was over.

Keeping his head slightly down as they were approached by Sengoku and gramps, not wanting them to see he wasn’t the real marine they had hired for this job. As well as for gramps to not recognize him and out him now, it wouldn’t end well.

To his utmost glee, he was handed a key for the chains holding Portgas D. Ace, in the event of the Whitebeards gaining too much ground, they were to take the prisoner away and bring him into the fortress to execute him there.

He just nodded, as did the other executor, while inside he was jumping up and down in glee, he had just been handed the best way of getting Ace free from his bindings without having to break the chains or his brother’s wrist.

When they finally brought Ace out, he had to swallow back a growl, Ace looked like hell, like he hadn’t slept in as many days as he had been Impel Down – which wouldn’t surprise him from all that he had heard from others about the prison.

He also looked starved and dehydrated, making him clench his teeth, he knew how much Ace ate on a normal day, to know marines didn’t feed their prisoners made him mad beyond belief, and made him think about his comrades which had been locked into the prison as well, hoping that they didn’t die starving.

Following the ones leading Ace onto the platform, he made sure to look at everything they had done to Ace, just to make sure he could get this information to the right channels, the news that the marines starved and tortured their prisoners would make some waves, especially since not all prisoners were pirates.

Taking a position just behind his brother, he was surprised to see gramps taking a seat next to Ace and start talking to him. Even more so when Garp admitted that he hated pirates, but that family was a different case. He also could see from the way gramps’s shoulders dropped, that he hated being here, as well as to be here when Ace lost his life – just for being born.

Maybe the man did try his utmost best to make sure they were safe, even if they hadn’t turned into marines the way he had hoped they would. It made him smile slightly, although he covered it up with a scowl soon after.

Seeing the Whitebeard Pirates emerge made him feel hope that maybe they were able to rescue Ace on their own. The commanders in action was a sight to see, especially Marco the Phoenix, who could take an attack of an admiral and come out unscathed. When the other blond made his way over the crowds in the square, trying to make his way to Ace, only for gramps to put a stop to it – making Sabo grind his teeth once more, family was the only exception to pirates it would seem.

Looking at Ace, he saw his older brother looking at the square below, his eyes betraying how lost he felt at seeing his crew, his family, fighting to get to him.

It only got worse when a ship fell down on the battlefield, Luffy falling with it and calling out to Ace that he would save him, and that they were brothers.

Sabo wanted to facepalm, even if it made all the marines concentrate on Luffy for a moment, giving him time to put together a plan on how to get himself and Ace off of this platform and back to the Pirate side of the square.

With him thinking and Luffy, as well as the Whitebeard Pirates, advancing towards the platform, Sengoku gave the order for Ace to be executed. As Sabo pretended to heft his sword, he locked eyes with Ace for a moment, the other man’s eyes widening.

Before the swords could get all the way up high, Luffy unlocked his conqueror’s haki, making the other executor faint. Ridding it out, Sabo rightened himself, only to activate his own haki and brink a clawed hand down onto the platform.

As they were falling, Sabo made sure to free Ace, landing on his feet as they found their way on the square. Ace was still looking like he had seen a ghost, leaving Sabo to take his hand and pull him with him towards the other side of the square.

In the aftermath of the chaos brought on by Luffy’s blast of conqueror’s haki, as well as Sabo destroying the platform, he and Ace were able to get a good portion away from the admirals, as well as most of the higher classed marines.

Taking a break, Sabo made sure to change into his regular clothes instead of the Marine clothes he had stolen. Ace still kept staring at him, still not believing he was actually here.

“I can explain how I am here, but I think we should get to your crew first.”

Ace just nodded as they got to the wall that had been erected to try and stop the advancing Pirates. It was also their luck that Luffy came rocking over at the same moment they arrived. Their younger brother wrapping Ace in a hug the moment he saw the other.

Sabo just smiled; glad they were al together.

“Luffy, we need to get to the other side of the wall again.”

Luffy turned to him and tilted his head, “who are you?”

Ace scoffed, with Sabo also smiling, “take a very good look, Lu, I couldn’t believe it either. But it really is…”

Luffy’s eyes widened, “SABO!”

Grinning, Sabo nodded, “we can catch up later, and I can explain it too, but right now we need to get out of here until the higher ranked officers arrive. As great as we were fighting together, I don’t think we can take all three admirals.”

Ace scowled at that, bit the look in his eyes told him that the oldest brother had the same thought. Luffy just nodded, extending and arm over the wall and gripping it. Ace and Sabo held on and they were rocketed back over, much to the surprise of the other people looking at them.

Once over the wall again, they were surrounded by marines, none of which was over the rank of captain, so they could take them.

“Hey Ace, think we can still do forest formation 19?”

Ace suddenly started grinning, before they turned to Luffy, the youngest of them shrugging, willing to go along with whatever his big brothers had planned.

The marines on the other hand didn’t know what to do when they were attacked by Ace and Sabo, while Luffy kept tossing them like a yoyo, giving them a clear way to the Moby Dick. Sabo carried Luffy on his back when their younger brother had swayed on his feet. The moment they arrived, they were ushered onto the deck, all the other members of their crew, or allied crews crowding on too as the Moby sank under water, followed by the other ships in the bay.

They had managed to safe Ace, with some help from Strawhat Luffy, and a revolutionary, the explanation would follow after, for now all of them were glad they were all safe, and the amount of casualties stayed low.


	3. Triple date (modern AU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fits in my AU ‘new beginnings’ – but you don’t have to read that one to follow this story.

Not long after Luffy had found all of his Nakama in this new modern world, he, Sabo and Ace agreed to take their significant others out on a date, together. Before there had never been time to get to know the other’s partner.

Not to forget that it had been Marco who had told Luffy and Sabo, that he and Ace were closer than just crewmates. But with death of Ace, he never saw a reason to tell them that until they met up at the final battle against the world government.

Sabo and Koala had been a couple, and Luffy had known about it somewhat, but he hadn’t cared about that more than to know his brother was happy, and he liked Koala. He didn’t know how it ended for them in the last fight but seeing them together again was nice to see.

As for Luffy and Law, they kept on being attracted, but Law hadn’t wanted to start something when he knew this could all end very soon, with the battle they would enter soon. While Luffy was too oblivious to his feelings, and only realised when Law confessed while they were both on the battlefield – wanting to at least tell the other how he felt when he might die soon.

But now, in this modern world, where there were no pirates nor marines, and the corrupt souls, who might take advantage of this had been taken out by Dragon years ago, leaving them to just enjoy this time together with their Nakama, with each other and with their soon-to-be in-laws.

Luffy had asked Sanji to reserve then a table at Zeff’s restaurant, knowing it would be the best food in several miles’ radius. And it would be great to see the chef again, even if he wouldn’t remember. The food at the Baratie had been the best he had eaten, only topped by the food Sanji made for them.

Law and Luffy arrived first, mostly because Law had made sure they were out the door half an hour before they had to be at the Baratie, he knew his boyfriend – Lover – Significant other, well enough to know that it would still delay them some, as for some reason Luffy always met other people of their Nakama when they went out.

Finally entering the Baratie, they found Sanji waiting for them, leading them to a table big enough for more than the 6 of them that were eating there. But then again between Sabo, Ace and Luffy they needed a giant table to be able to put all the food on it that the brothers were going to order.

To keep Luffy entertained, Sanji was quick to bring some appetisers, as well as drinks for the both of them. He also let Law know he’d be the server of their table today – as he knew all the restrictions or dietary plans for all 6 of them. That and the normal servers wouldn’t be able to keep up with the way the brothers ate.

Law thanked him as he sipped his tea. Luffy already having drink his soda, eating the appetisers at a rate that seemed to shock the other tables.

Sabo and Koala were the next to appear, waving at Sanji as they were led to their table by the hostess, Sanji approached to set another appetiser down in front of Luffy, while he left again to get Koala and Sabo a drink.

Ace and Marco were the last to appear, both of them still dressed from their day at the office, even if both had lost their ties, with Marco’s shirt open just far enough that you could see the beginning of his tattoo.

Ace had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, again, so you could see the start of his ASL tattoo – having gotten their initials instead of his name with the crossed out S; now that they all were alive and well.

Sanji returned, and must have seen Ace and Marco enter, as he brought a beer for the eldest blond in their company, and soda for Ace, as well as a white wine for Koala and Sabo. He also refilled Luffy’s glass, and put yet again, some appetisers on the table.

More than before, so the others also had time to get some of it, before Luffy ate it.

“I’m guessing you all still trust me to go and get the kitchen to make whatever?”

Ace, Sabo and Luffy nodded, with Law, Koala and Marco just smiling, “all of us trust you with this Sanji.”

Smiling, the blond cook made his way to the kitchen. For all of them, the blond was one of the best cooks they knew. It also helped that he remembered what things some of them didn’t eat or couldn’t eat.

As such he never brought Law any bread, never brought Koala shellfish (she was allergic), and never brought Ace anything with alcohol in it (his new meds couldn’t be mixed with alcohol).

Marco, Sabo and Luffy didn’t have such restrictions, but Marco didn’t like red meat, while Sabo didn’t like mushrooms after that one trip to the forest, while Luffy would always eat more meat than any other food category.

The time until their food appeared was spend talking and getting to know each other better than they already had. For Koala and Law this was mostly the case for Ace, because they hadn’t gotten to know the eldest of the brothers before his untimely dead.

Sabo and Luffy were mostly concentration on Marco, as they hadn’t focused that much on his relationship with Ave before, as the oldest brunet had been dead by then, but now he was alive again, and would be for a long time to come.

But still, they all kept it light, it was very obvious the brothers were all happy with their significant others, and in the end that was the only thing that mattered to them. To live with no regrets and to be happy in whatever they did.

Within in moments they were all laughing as stories from their childhood, both of them, were shared over the table, making them all laugh, and the person who was the subject of the story blush a little at how brash they had been as a child.

Within half and hour, Sanji came their way again, arms laded up with plates. He set them down in front of the person they were meant for, starting with Luffy, so the others could at least eat in peace for a little while. He left soon after and came back to their table a total of 4 times, making their table loaded with food – which they all knew would disappear soon enough in the stomachs of the ASL brothers.

The only mishap happening, was ace falling asleep, with Marco catching him and leaning him against his shoulder. Sighing, the eldest blond told them he suspected Ace had forgotten his medication that lunch.

Others around their table looked at them at the way Ace hand against Marco.

One woman even approached them to ask if everything was alright. Law and Marco both assured her that they were doctors, and that Ace had a medical condition that made him fall asleep at random moments, he would wake up within moments and get right back to eating.

She didn’t seem convinced, and flagged Sanji to tell him that one of his patrons had fainted from eating his food.

At seeing who it was, he snorted and told the woman the same thing that Marco and Law had told her.

Still not convinced, the woman called the cops citing she thought something horrible had happened to a patron at the Baratie, the officers coming inside – which in turn called Zeff from the kitchen. Much to their surprise it was Garp and Coby who had answered the call.

The old man approaching the woman, with Zeff and Sanji close by, both blond cooks ticked off because the woman hadn’t believed them, not had she believed two doctors at the other table. She stated that she worried as none of them did anything, and that young man could be dead for all they knew.

She then pointed to the table in question, where all of them waved at Garp and Coby, ace still knocked out.

Garp made a point of laughing really loud, “Ma’am, do you want to tell me that you didn’t believe two of the best doctors in the world on the health of their partner and brother-in-law? Not only that, but when you asked the owner’s son that he would let one of his best friends die on his watch. I think you need to think things through.”

Before he went to the table the triple date was going on, he turned back to her, “but it did give me the chance to spend some time with my grandchildren and their partners, so for that I thank you. But I don’t think Zeff and Sanji here like the police getting called on something already explained to you twice.”

With that he turned and headed to the table his grandchildren were seated at. All of them, with the exception of Marco and Ace making room so he and Coby could take a seat and have a drink while they caught up for a little while.

All of them looking as Zeff asked the woman to leave their restaurant for calling the police for something like this.

As soon as she was outside, Ace woke up and as predicted, started to eat again, looking shocked at seeing his grandpa seated there, at least until the others told him of what had happened.

Garp and Coby stayed for maybe 15 minutes before they got another call, wishing them all a great date, and reminding them all of the party they were throwing for the people who had their birthday these last month. With the amount of people in their extended family, they held a party once a month for every birthday the last month, changing the location every time. This time would be at Garp’s place.

As the two police officers left the Baratie after on last goodbye, the three couples asked Sanji to bring them their desserts, enjoying the evening, until they were one of the last patrons in the restaurant.

Sanji politely asked them to leave, which they did after asking him to give his thanks to Zeff, as well say hi to his siblings and mother. Which the blond said he would do.

The couples went their own ways outside, Ace and Marco to their car, and on to the apartment they shared closer to Whitebeard Corp.

Sabo and Koala were walking to their own apartment, they had come on foot knowing both of them would drink this evening, and their apartment wasn’t all that far off anyway.

Luffy got in Law’s car as the older man drove them to what used to be Dandan’s house and was now the residence of all the Straw Hats who hadn’t had a house before. Law found it too crowded most of the time, as well as too loud, but in his own head he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Once home, they climbed into their bed, pressing a kiss to Luffy’s lips and telling the younger he had enjoyed their triple date with his brothers, making Luffy beam at him before they fell asleep.


	4. How it all started

Ace was getting annoyed by the little that was following him around. Gramps had just dropped the little shit off, and left again, as usual. He’d thought that would be the last of it, but it appeared the brat didn’t know when to give up.

He had followed Ace right from the start, where the older boy did anything, he could, to lose him.

The more days passed the better the brat became at following him to where he met up with Sabo, and he didn’t want to happen. He knew the blond had a much softer heart than he had, meaning he would be open to accepting the little brat, and he didn’t need that, not now.

He even grinned when the brat slid into the ravine in the middle of the forest, that would teach the brat that following him never ended well.

Getting to Dandan’s that evening, the woman asked where Luffy was, making him shrug his shoulders, it was not his job to keep an eye on the brat. He wasn’t a babysitter and he had better things to do with his time.

A few days passed without the brat showing up, but he also didn’t follow him through the forest, all the better. It gave him and Sabo more time to go through the people in the Grey Terminal, they needed more coins if they wanted to finance their journey to be pirates.

The brat turned up after 3 days, full of scratch marks, bruises and cuts, where did he fall into, the wolf’s den at the back of the forest. He scoffed, it wouldn’t surprise him – this Luffy did look like a simpleton, who would be stupid enough to walk into a wolf’s den.

Luckily, Dandan kept the brat inside for a few days longer, to make sure his wounds healed right, and he didn’t get any infections on them. It made him angry that the brat got attention because he was hurt. If he got hurt, it was because he wasn’t strong enough to look after himself.

One more reason why he didn’t like the brat, he didn’t need a brat such as him following him. He didn’t need anyone, except maybe Sabo, he liked the other boy, but other than Sabo he didn’t need anyone!

A week after Luffy returned, he started to follow Ace again, much to his ire. He started laying traps for the boy to walk into to make him stop from following him. But they didn’t seem to be doing a lot.

He went over to punching trees or pushing rocks to crush the boy, trying to make him stop him by doing that. It was also when he found out the boy had a devil fruit and was a rubber boy. That also made him scoff, what a terrible power was rubber. It wasn’t that strong, and he was only a paramecia – if he got attacked the chance was that he still got hurt.

If he could eat a devil fruit, he’d want a logia, preferably something like fire, or ice – something that could do a lot of damage, instead of just stretching.

When dropping things on him still didn’t stop him, he started taking the paths the long way around, which also came by several dens, or places a lot of the more dangerous animals gathered. So far, he had managed to get the brat chased by the King of the mountain, a family of bears and the same wolf pack as in the beginning.

It made him smile a bit, might finally learn that brat to stop following him. So, when he made his way to Sabo the day after without getting followed by the brat, he thought he had done it, the brat would stop following him for good.

Only for the bane of his existence to come out of the underbrush with a smile on his face, looking at Ace and Sabo.

“Ace, I finally found you!”

And as he suspected, Sabo looked both of them, “Ace do you know him.”

Which made him grind his teeth and tell the blond they were living together at the bandits’ house he had told the other about.

Before they both turned to the younger boy and decided that killing him was the best way to go about this, after all he now knew where they buried their treasure. Part of that treasure they had stolen from Bluejam, who almost found them.

They hid in time, but they found the brat instead, who it seemed couldn’t lie for his life, making Bleujam’s mooks take him along, in a ploy to get the location of Ace and Sabo’s treasure.

Fearing the brat would squeal, he and Sabo moved all their treasure to another place, they couldn’t lose all this hard earned coin. They needed it to get off of this island. But hours passed, and no one had come to look for the gold on the place they had hidden it before.

Turning to him, Sabo said, “he wouldn’t keep this for him, do you think?”

Ace scoffed, “of course not, it would get him killed if he stayed silent on this.”

An hour passed, making the blond look at him again, “Ace, we need to go and get him.”

Scowling, the oldest boy clenched his hand over the pipe he held in his hand, trying to understand why Luffy wouldn’t just tell Bluejam where their treasure was, sparing himself of the pain he must no doubt be in.

Grinding his teeth, he set out to where he knew where Bleujam’s hideout was, once close enough they could hear the brute asking a question, which went unanswered, before the heavy slap of a hit on flesh sounded. It this had been going on since Luffy had been taken, they feared in what condition they would find the younger boy.

Exchanging glances with Sabo, they adjusted the hold they had on their pipes before storming into the hideout, getting a few good hits in, knocking out most of the mooks, which left Bluejam as the only real hostile. While Ace squared off against him, Sabo cut Luffy down and pulled him on his back, yelling at Ace they had to go.

While Ace kept standing, “I never run from a fight.”

He had the luck of landing a lucky hit and knocking the much larger man out, making him turn and go after Sabo and Luffy, they needed to get back into the forest, not a lot of people dared to go in there. They would be safe there, at least for a little while.

They made their way to where they had hidden their treasure now, Sabo putting the younger boy down and looking him over, Bluejam had taken out his spiked club giving the younger boy wounds all over his body. Sabo worried his lip between his lips, “Ace, I think we need to take him to your caretaker, I don’t know how to treat these, and I think some of these need stitches.”

Before they went, Ace turned to the younger boy, who was at least somewhat conscious, and happy to see them at the smile on his face.

“Why?”

Luffy made a questionable sound.

“Why didn’t you tell Bluejam what he wanted to know.”

Luffy winced, as he sat up, “because I didn’t want Ace to hate me.”

Ace scowled, “that isn’t worth risking your life for!”

Luffy nodded, wincing as he pulled some of his wounds, “yes, it is! This is nothing, being alone hurts a lot more than this wounds hurt.”

Ace looked at the boy, as if this was the first time, he saw the younger one.

“You want to be around me?”

Luffy nodded again, “Ace is so cool, and Sabo too!”

“And you like being around me?”

Luffy nodded once more.

“And…”, Ace hesitated, “you want me to be alive.”

Sabo looked at Ace, a dark look in his eyes, he had asked the same question to Sabo, soon after they first met. The blond having found out just why Ace was so conflicted and closed off to people around him.

Luffy started nodding in earnest again, instinctively knowing that the answer he gave on this question could mean the start of a beautiful friendship or being alone again.

Ace sighed, “let’s get you to Dandan, then, so you don’t get an infection in any of these wounds. Sabo, you should join us, as you being found by one of Bluejam’s mooks won’t spell anything good.”

The blond nodded, as they helped Luffy to stand and supported him to the bandits’ hideout. Where Dandan started yelling at them for getting hurt, until she noticed Sabo, then she started yelling for bringing another brat into her hut. She didn’t need any more mouths to feed.

Ace scoffed at that, telling her they would make sure they had their own food, as they already did. They just needed a place to stay for a while – she wouldn’t even notice they were here.

In the end, she relented, if only because if Garp found out she had kicked out one of his grandsons he’s be pissed beyond belief.

That day was the start of a friendship that would turn into a brotherhood, much stronger than blood.


	5. On the matter of eating with Forest Boys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was enspired by this tumblr post: https://midnightluck.tumblr.com/post/170130149894/for-write-night-maybe-something-about-the
> 
> Be sure to check it out!

Sabo was still stunned at what his friends, brothers, could eat in one sitting. He had been living with the bandits for a few months now and enjoyed all the extra time he now had with Ace, and Luffy.

They had even stolen sake from Dandan yesterday and toast to it, following Ace’s lead when the older boy said that by sharing a cup of sake, they would be considered siblings, brothers in this case. It didn’t change anything, yet everything at all. He now had brothers, they all had brothers.

But again, on the subject of spending a lot more time with Ace and Luffy, before they met and gathered coins and jewellery for their pirate fund, mostly in the afternoon, and they almost never stopped before dinner.

As such, he had seen Ace ate a few times, and while the dark-haired boy ate a lot, it was nothing compared to what Luffy could shove down. As a matter of fact, both Ace and Sabo thought Luffy ate as much because of the D metabolism, paired with his devil fruit.

Still, it was a sight to see when they were eating. Sabo ate a lot, but he was a growing boy too, and with people like Ace and Luffy around, he didn’t feel bad about eating half his body weight in food. Not when the other two exceeded their own body weight in the amount of food they ate.

Right now, they were all eating some crocodile they had caught, both Luffy and Ace had mentioned they loved the meat on this crocodiles, and Ace with the amount he spend in the forest, was excellent at skinning, deboning, and preparing animals in the forest to be roasted over a fire.

All three of them were enjoying the meat they had caught, prepared, and cooked. With Sabo being the first one to stop eating, Ace reluctantly stopped next, which left Luffy to eat all that was left – which the youngest one did with pleasure.

Sabo had to smile as he saw Luffy shove a piece of meat bigger than his face right in his mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing it, it must be because of his rubber powers, because normal people throats needed food chewed up before it could be swallowed.

This reminded him of the food they had yesterday, they had found some wild growing watermelons in the forest, probably from some seed, or a partial eaten one, that had been thrown out and started to grow.

Anyway, they had found the plant with several fruits on it, making them all look forward to eating the delicious fruit when Sabo told them he had eaten it once before, and it tasted sweet.

Taking three fruits with them, they had carved them in quarters, not wanting to wait, and cut them smaller to begin eating the melons and tasting their sweetness.

Sabo had eaten his with small bites, enjoying the sweetness of the red part, he had also made sure to pick out as many seeds as he could, before eating them. He still got a seed or two at every bits, but he spit them out as soon as he felt them.

Ace and Luffy, having never had watermelon were funny to watch.

Ace had taken a bit out of the side of his melon, spitting it out the moment he tasted the bitter peal. He hadn’t been totally convinced the fruit was actually sweet, until Sabo explained to him that it was the red part he was supposed to eat, and that part was sweet.

Still sceptical the oldest dark-haired boy had tried the red part, and had begun smiling happily, it did taste really sweet. Swallowing that part, he turned to Sabo.

“I tasted a lot of seeds.”

Sabo nodded, “melons have a lot of those, I just pick them out before I eat one, but I know some people who just swallow them down, or a few that spit the seeds out after they eat the red flesh.”

Ace had nodded, taking another bigger bite and chewing, swallowing before he spit out quite a few of the seeds. He kept doing that, which only made it funnier as he, and Luffy, made it into a contest to see who could get the most seeds into a basked Sabo had set up.

Luffy, true to his way of eating, just showed the whole quarter melon in his mouth, chawed a few times and swallowed, only to spit out the peel, and all the seeds in rapid succession. It also made Ace propose the contest, seeing as he wasn’t able to shove that much down his throat.

Luffy had fallen asleep after he ate his crocodile meat, as he did every time they ate. Well, almost every time, a good way to know if they’d be ill from a food they had eaten, was to notice if Luffy had fallen asleep after eating or not. If he stayed awake, they all knew they’d be ill somewhere through the night.

One instance came to mind, where they had found a weed that looked a lot like grinsley, which was used to season food, it looked like it so much, that they didn’t thin further and used it on the meat they had caught that evening.

Turns out it was not grinsley, they didn’t know what it was, but by the effects it had on them, they called it ‘leak weed’. That had not been a fun night.

Another instance was when they came upon some mushrooms, and Sabo, always the smart one, had been trying to convince his friends, now they were brothers, to eat some of them, instead of only eating meat.

So, after much sweet talking, and telling them about the pro’s of having something other than meat into their systems one in a while, especially as growing boys, Luffy and Ace had relented and were open to eating the mushroom. Which happened to be a mutated kind that could be used as a hallucinogen, needless to say, it wasn’t a bad night per say. But all of them had been too stoned to do much else that evening.

It would take quite some time before Ace believed Sabo again and would eat a vegetable they had found in the forest. The last time after all, hadn’t turned out so well.

The last instance e could think about, was when they figured out that Luffy stole food if you weren’t watching. It just so happened that Sabo had already finished eating, and Ace had asked him something, turning his attention to the blond to listen to the answer he would give.

Sadly, this gave Luffy the opening he needed to eat all the rest of the meat they had prepared, down to the drumstick still in Ace’s hand. The oldest black-haired boy had been furious when he found out all the food had vanished, without him getting to eat his fill.

Sabo had to grin, happy to share this with his brothers, the days were never boring, when they could even make eating an adventure.


	6. 100 spars each

Ace and Sabo had held spars for almost as long as they had known each other, in fact their first meeting ended in a fight, even if both of them called it a spar. After all, it was the best way they knew to train and become stronger. And like that first one, to measure their capabilities against someone else. They wanted to be pirates, of course, they needed to be strong to live on the sea. Working on getting stronger by training, on their own, as gramps was of training didn’t count.

When Luffy joined them, he also wanted to join them in the spars, which took a while before they agreed to that. Ace thought Luffy’s devil fruit was cheating, even if it was a useless power. They also, secretly, didn’t want to be held back by someone younger than them, and in their juvenile minds thus weaker.

Luffy argued, and kept them company during their spars, which had been agreed on, 100 a day, every day. About a month after they accepted Luffy as their friend, they agreed, or Sabo agreed he should join them in their sparring, after all Luffy wanted to be a pirate too. Well, that, and Luffy kept asking after each time they spared, getting the same question 100 times a day, would make anyone rethink their answer.

Ace had sighed, but agreed, and proceeded to win all the 50 matches against Luffy, with Sabo following suit, after all, Luffy seemed to not know his own strength and kept hitting wrong, making his fists bounce around at the trees around them instead of hitting Sabo or Ace.

It had amused all of them, but Luffy wouldn’t give up, never gave up, even if he lost days and weeks in a row.

Ace against Sabo, was as always, a tie, or slightly to one of them, mostly it was split 25, to 25, adding to the 50 they won against Luffy, giving them both a total of 75, while Luffy had a score of 0.

The youngest pouted at that, exclaiming he would beat them both when he was older. Actually, believing he would catch up to them.

Only for Sabo to sigh, and Ace to say they’d be older then too, and stronger.

This would make Luffy only pout more, feeling mocked at the way Ace said such things to him. He’d come and walk next to Sabo after those moments, not feeling like walking next to Ace. Making the other black haired boy jealous, even if he didn’t want to admit it. While Sabo just laughed and enjoyed the times had with his brothers.

Both Ace and Sabo began noticing a positive evolution in Luffy’s fighting style. For one, the longer they did these 100 spars a day, the longer it took for either of them to win against Luffy, making them more tired too at the end of the day.

It did make them rethink their statement about staying stronger than Luffy, they might always stay older, but that didn’t mean stronger. After all, Luffy seemed to be catching up, even after just a few weeks. He had a long way ahead of him, but that didn’t mean anything.

The first time Luffy fell asleep as he had been watching Ace and Sabo spar, they had shaken him awake and walked back to Dandan’s place, the youngest of them yawning the hole way, while Ace and Sabo were tired too, they tried not to show it, even if that wasn’t so easy, with Luffy yawning next to them.

Luffy got in the habit of falling asleep as his spars for the day were over, a smile on his face, most likely at the way he loves being so close to his brothers after a fun day. Sabo had gotten the habit of waking the younger boy, to give him a piggyback ride back to the hut.

Ace had scoffed at that, and refused to do that, even if Sabo could see in his eyes that he would love to. After all, Luffy was a ball of sunshine, no one could hate on him. The youngest of them attached himself to them like a fungus or something else that was impossible to get rid of.

As they grew older, the piggybacks weren’t needed, but sometimes the older boys offered it to Luffy when they felt like it, loving the way their younger brother’s face would light up, and he’d beam up at them.

When Sabo was – gone, Ace refused to give anymore piggyback rides to Luffy, it just hurt to much, and made him miss their blond brother too much.

He only started again, after Luffy had gotten hurt by that bear, and he needed to get him to Dandan as soon as possible. He had stayed at the younger boy’s side while he recovered, hating himself for letting his grief coming in between them, and for making him break his promise to the late Sabo, that he’d look after Luffy.

It was a whole process, as Sabo had been the kinder brother, while Ace had been stronger one (or so he wanted to make himself believe) and now he needed to be both, as Sabo wasn’t with them any longer.

The first time Ace had offered to carry Luffy again, the younger brother hadn’t known what he had to say, after all, Ace hadn’t been the one to offer this a lot, and after losing Sabo had stopped offering completely. However, when he climbed on Ace’s back, he felt safe once again, and while it made him miss Sabo all the more, it also reminded it him of the brother he did still have – who could still carry him around.

As they started to do their 100 spars each once more, Ace caught himself that he carried Luffy home a lot more, just like Sabo used to do. A soft smile on his face, thanking the god out there for having a brother like Luffy with him, who could make him see the light in every situation. Who was a cry baby, but also a warm spot, on his back, and in his heart, for keeping away those dark thoughts he had often.

When Ace left, he made sure to carry Luffy around on his back the entire day before, wanting to keep the memory of that alive, as well as a tribute to Sabo, wherever he was, to let their other brother know they wouldn’t forget this.

It had something to do with Luffy asking for it too, as he knew he would need to wait 3 years to be able to set out to sea, he wouldn’t meet Ace for at least 3 years, and would miss those moments with his older brother.

They would keep the memory of him alive, through their own memories, and the things they did, the new memories they made, and their conviction to live with ne regrets.

It would take 3 years before they saw each other again, where they didn’t really have any time, not really, but they still made time to say bye to each other, and to remember Sabo in their own way, as well thinking back on the memories they made together, both before Sabo, and after the blond.


	7. Fixing a lost bond

Luffy didn’t know what had happened, the only thing he did know; was that when he opened his eyes he was standing in in a very familiar forest. The same one he had grown up in even, even though that didn’t make any sense.

He had been in the New World not a night ago, so how could he be here now. All the way in East Blue.

Looking around he almost had to look twice, rubbing his eyes before he was sure that what he was seeing was also what there actually was.

Not that far from him, his older brothers stood, both of them like he had last seen them. Sabo with the scar over his eye, and decked out in mostly blue, with a black overcoat.

Ace had a scar on his chest and back, the once proud tattoo he carried of the Whitebeard Pirates an unrecognizable mess, but he knew his brother, and this was him without a doubt!

“Ace, Sabo!”

Rocketing towards them, he caught both of them in one of his tackle hugs, stopping them from staring at the other.

“Lu, Luffy!”

Grinning up at them, he smiled, happy to be seeing them again, he had seen Sabo not that long ago, when the man in question had been visiting him on the Thousand Sunny, as a little vacation time from the revolutionary army, now that the World Government had been disassembled.

Ace, however, hadn’t been seen since Marineford, where their older brother had sadly died at the hands of Akainu. He had been avenged though, soon after the Straw Hats had arrived at Laugh Tale, Akainu had gotten onto their tail.

But between Garp, Sabo, Dragon and Luffy, the marine hadn’t had a chance in hell to defeat them, thus making it possible to instal Coby as the new Fleet Admiral, with Garp in charge of training the new ones.

With Coby leading, they were also sure that only those that were the plundering, and murdering pirates, would be caught, convicted and executed. Instead of those just seeking freedom, who were free to roam the seas once more.

Sabo and Luffy had given the final blow, avenging Ace, and in Luffy’s case killing the only man in his entire career. He would have preferred to not have to do this, but he knew, as did almost everyone else, that Akainu was a blood hound, who wouldn’t stop until he had exterminated all those who carried blood of Pirates or Revolutionaries.

Babbling to both his brothers about how happy he was to see them again, after so long without.

Sabo and Ace were back to staring at each other. Both, no doubt wondering how the other could be alive right now. As Ace never knew Sabo lived past that day, and Sabo never saw Ace before he regained his memory, after Marineford.

“How are you here!?”

Luffy giggled, “I met a person with a mystery devil fruit, maybe that’s why we’re here.”

Ace and Sabo looked at Luffy, before looking at each other, and sighing.

“Lu, that still doesn’t explain how we can be here. Last time I checked Sabo died when we were 10, and I died at 20.”

Luffy giggled again, “Sabo survived, he just lost his memories! And Ace is my brother too, I just wanted to make sure we wouldn’t lose this. I think the mystery devil fruit person send us back because of that.”

As Luffy said this, both Ace and Sabo turned their observation haki on, and could find their own signatures a little while further. Bot got a grin on their face.

“So, Bluejam, and Outlook should be here to take Sabo away from us.”

Luffy nodded, “yeah, if Sabo never needs to leave, we can stay together, and then everything would go very differently.”

Ace and Sabo hummed at that it would be like that. If Sabo had stayed with them, they would set out 2 months after each other. But both of them would be very different people with someone so important still in their lives.

Luffy set out towards where they could feel their younger selves, and wasn’t that a very strange concept, that they would have an encounter with their younger selves and give their younger selves a glimpse at the future.

Keeping to the shadows of Grey Terminal, they found the 3 young boys soon enough. Outlook had a hand on Sabo’s shoulder, keeping the young blond from approaching younger Ace and Luffy again. All around them vats were placed.

Ace and Luffy looked at each other, this didn’t happen like this last time. Sabo had been taken, before they had to place the vats around Grey Terminal, lighting it on fire. With Bluejam and his crew trying to keep them in the fire, betraying that Outlook had paid them to kill the two young boys for the ‘contamination’ they had done to his son.

But it looked that here, Outlook was planning on making Sabo watch what happened to his friends, to his brothers, by the way both the younger Ace and Luffy were held under gunpoint, Sabo, the younger eyes were wide as he kept shaking his head, turning back to plead with his father.

But the man ignored them, nodding to the two thieves, as Pirates they were not, made to shoot the two boys in front of them.

The older versions glanced at each other, before nodding. Sabo running to his own counterpart, while Ace and Sabo did the same with theirs.

“Hey asshole, pick on someone your own size.”

As he yelled this, Ace hit the one closest to him, the one holding younger Luffy, sending the man flying a few good feet away. Luffy meanwhile pulled an arm back and hit the one holding onto a younger Ace. As that man went flying too, Bluejam stepped out, thinking he could take them.

But they were the Pirate King, and the second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, a no-life like Bluejam didn’t stand a chance.

Outlook on the other hand, seeing that his plan wouldn’t work, tried to make a run for it with Sabo still in his hold. However, the older Sabo threw his pipe between the man’s legs, making him fall down into the dirt of Grey Terminal.

Letting go of the younger Sabo, the older version made sure to catch his younger version, glaring down at the noble in front of him.

“You’re going to forget you ever saw your son here, Outlook, I promise you, you won’t like the outcome.”

The man on the ground sputtered, trying to intimidate the blond man in front of him, even though he knew he wouldn’t get there.

Sabo, the older, kept on glaring, until the noble ran away, his tail between his legs. As he disappeared, he put his younger version on the ground, patting the kid on his head.

“Let’s go and check on our brothers, alright.”

The kid just nodded, before trailing after him. Bluejam was laying knocked out on the ground, while Ace was making sure any fire that had been lit, was put out. Sabo going to help him, leaving Luffy with the younger versions of themselves.

Within a few moments, they had doused any fires that had been started, going back to where they had left the kids, seeing the younger and their version of Luffy looking at each other. The younger version of Sabo and Ace looking at them as they approached.

“You’re us?!”

Ace and Sabo face palmed, “Lu, what have you been saying?”

Luffy just grinned, “the truth!”

Sighing, both older version turned to their younger versions and nodded, confirming what they had asked. Both boys approached and started asking one question after the other, prompting Luffy, Ace and Sabo to answer the questions asked. After all, they had been given the chance to come back here, to change a major event in their lives, hoping their counterparts’ life turned out differently.

Telling Sabo, he would have forgotten his brothers, if he had tried to flee his parents’ home, and telling Ace that he would die at 20 because of his father’s bloodline, had been the hardest parts to tell.

Yet, telling them about the Revolutionaries, the Spades and Whitebeard Pirates and Luffy becoming Pirate King was a gift, at seeing all their faces lighting up in awe – even little Ace’s even though he tried to hide it.

The three older versions just smiled as it all faded away like a great dream.

Waking up in his captain cabin, Luffy looked around, seeing a black-haired head and a blond head next to him, his brothers limbs tangled with his own. It would seem like the mystery devil fruit worked; they were together again, and both his older brothers were alive. No doubt getting into all kinds of trouble with their respectable groups, but for now, they were here with him – enjoying feeling close again after not seeing each other for so long (even if his memories told him differently, he knew of a time before that).


	8. Alabasta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of this drawing: https://mtcolubo.tumblr.com/post/171854279421/screenshot-redraw

Luffy knew he had to make a run for it the moment he saw Smokey stepping towards him after he had accidentally hit the man in his haste to get to food, turning, and running away had seemed like the best possible solution he could take, after all, he knew he didn’t stand a chance against the logia user. The only downside was that he directed the Marine to where the rest of his crew was hiding and trying not to get noticed while they stocked up their pantry for the rest of the trip, making them all have to run from the marines. Much to the anger of Nami and Sanji, who had hoped to stay unnoticed a little bit longer.

On the next square however, a wall of flames blocked the Marine from advancing any further, two figures standing just in the flames with their backs towards the straw Hat Pirates. At least this made them somewhat of allies.

Zoro and Sanji recognized the two men from where they had been showing Luffy’s bounty poster and asking almost every passer-by if they had seen their captain. Instantly on edge, the vice-captain and 3rd seat of the Straw Hats readied themselves for a fight.

Only for both of them to turn around and grin at Luffy, waving him away, saying they would deal with the Marines, giving them all time to get away.

Zoro recognized the dark haired one as Portgas D. Ace, former captain of the Spade Pirates, and now 2nd commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. The other man, a blond, was rumoured to be high up in the Revolutionary Army.

So, what, in the name of the sea did those two want with Luffy?

For now, though, all of the Straw Hats made use of the opportunity to get away from Smoker and let the two others, undoubtably stronger, deal with the Marine.

Running through the streets of Nanohana, most of them stell looking behind themselves to see smoke and fire meeting, in a fight some of them would love to see.

Turning to Luffy, Zoro asked, “how do those men know you.”

Their Captain, in typical response, smiles before adding, “they’re my big brothers.”

Zoro almost stops running after hearing that, “one of your brothers in the Second Division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and the other is one of the higher ups of the Revolutionary army?”

Luffy nodded, “they both promised to meet up with me once I, or we, came onto the Grand Line, just our luck they managed to find me at the same time. Sucks for Smokey though.”

Still running, and throwing their captain looks that would kill, if looks could do such a thing. Here Zoro and Sanji had been on edge, as notorious known people were asking about their captain, thinking they were after his bounty or something like that. Instead, they were looking for their younger brother.

Scowling at where they had last seen their captain, Sanji and Zoro cursed, it would seem that Luffy’s luck had struck again, seeing as the teen was nowhere to be seen. As Usopp and Nami noticed the same thing, they just assured them Luffy would turn up again, as he always did.

On the other side of the port, Luffy had noticed that he didn’t have his crew around him, but true to his nature this didn’t bother him all that much, he always found the others soon after, so being alone now wouldn’t matter all that much.

Wondering the streets in the general direction of the sea, he looked up at one point, almost feeling as if someone, or something was following him.

Looking up once more, a shadow jumped off of the roof nearby, soon followed by another. Once they stood next to him, Luffy’s face brightened up as he beamed at his older brothers.

“Ace, Sabo!”

Both of his older brothers smiled at him, before suggesting they do a test of strength, arm wrestling on a barrel of water Luffy had been carrying. None of them won, even if the barrel obviously lost.

Grinning at their younger brother, both Ace and Sabo remarked that he had become so much stronger since they left their home island 3 years ago.

Grinning right back, Luffy answered with, “you too, Ace, Sabo.”

As they started walking again, towards the coast, they were once again shadowed, this time by members of Baroque Works, in an effort to get their bounties. Which was in the disadvantage of those millions, as these brothers had impeccable teamwork, even after not seeing each other for years.

Dealing with those few trying to get their bounty didn’t even take any effort, leading them all to get to the coastline in no time flat. Ace, stopping to deal with the last few still following them, told Sabo and Luffy to go ahead.

Which the younger one did, by stretching his arm to his ship that came by, leaving his older brothers alone while he reunited with his crew, much to their ire, as he had impacted on most of them when he came flying onto the Merry.

While he was bragging about his older brothers to his crew, and they asked where said older brothers were. Luffy exclaimed that he would be able to win against Ace and Sabo this time, seeing as he never had been able to before.

Of course, this was the moment both brothers arrived at the Merry, having made it there on Ace’s little boat. Attaching Striker to the bigger boat their brother captained, Sabo and Ace jumped up to the railing of the ship. Smiling at the crew they saw assembled there, thanking all of them for taking care of their little brother.

What followed after was Ace taking care of the 3 ships from Baroque Works which had come to try and claim the bounties on all the Straw Hats. As expected, they didn’t stand a chance, but it showed the Straw Hats, just what level of power New World Pirates packed.

With the threat of both Baroque works, and the Marines, taken care of, Luffy had a chance to actually introduce his older brothers to his crew, and vice versa. It became quite the cosy affair with some food, some booze, and stories from their own adventures, or in the Straw Hats’ case – how Luffy had recruited them, exchanged between the Straw Hats, Fire First Ace, and Sabo the Revolutionary.


	9. You ate a Divel Fruit too!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off of [this Tumblr post. ](https://yukipri.tumblr.com/post/188913923397/luffy-oopsfalls-into-ocean-ace-luffy)

It had seemed to be just a regular day on the Sunny, that was until they could see a flare on the horizon. Fearing an attack from the marines, the whole of the crew prepared themselves for a confrontation – which never came.

As the flare closed in, they could see it wasn’t a warning shot, nor was it an actual flare signal. It was the ship Ace used to move on, Striker, with Ace and Sabo on board.

Their Captain’s older brothers seemed to have met up and decided they wanted to see their youngest brother, now that all of them roamed the New World, making it a whole lot easier to meet up – or to call and meet up.

Ace and Sabo hadn’t called ahead, but both knew they would always be welcome on the Sunny, and with their brother’s crew – they were after all respectable people in the world of Pirates. With Ace being the Second commander to the Whitebeard Pirates, and Sabo being the right hand of the Revolutionary army’s leader.

Zoro indicated they could stash the little boat with the other lifeboats and their supply run boat in the hull of Sunny’s ship. Ace and Sabo, having been on the Sunny before, found their own way onto the deck – getting smothered in a hug from Luffy the moment they entered.

The others looked on with smiles on their faces, especially Sanji, Nami and Franky, all the other Straw Hats, who had siblings which they missed – even if in Sanji’s case their relationship had only been recently mended.

Welcoming the other two in their circle, the blond and brunette smiled at all of their brother’s Nakama, it was never said, but they liked coming here, to the Thousand Sunny – the ship was unlike anything they had ever seen, even more, it was so different then being on their own ships/base.

The Moby Dick was in a constant state of uproar, mostly because of her size, and the number of people they carried. With enough people to warrant 16 divisions, it was never quiet, nor was there a totally quiet place.

The Thousand Sunny had a library and an aquarium room which was kept quiet for their navigator and their archaeologist, and with a crew as small as them, it wasn’t the hardest to keep it quiet.

Sabo always had to think back of the time Robin spend on their base, always looking for a quiet place, which wasn’t easy in a base always on high alert for moving out the moment the world needed them – or when they believed they needed to save it.

But here, on the Sunny peace and quiet wasn’t that far off, or always findable.

After Luffy let them go, Sabo went to talk to Robin, while Ace joined Jinbei as the wheel, talking to the former captain of the Fisherman pirates. Keeping him up to date on what was going on with them, the Whitebeard Pirates, and all their allies.

Having spend the afternoon catching up with friends on the Sunny, they were all seated on the grass on the main deck of the Sunny, which was another thing only Luffy could want – a plain of grass on a ship.

Sanji had prepared food for them, to be eaten in a picknick style dinner.

And what a dinner it was it, if Sanji hadn’t been their little brother’s cook, both Ace and Sabo would persuade the blond to join them as their cook. Even if the Revolutionary army’s cook was a great one. While Ace had Thatch and the others of the fourth division to provide food.

With three people on board who ate much more than the average men, Sanji was challenged to put his cooking skills to the test, something he liked doing. Still, between Luffy, Ace and Sabo – the food was gone in a few minutes, the others having been smart enough to take a plate before the brothers started eating.

Now, after dinner, the brothers were all sitting close together, with Luffy perched on the railing of the ship, laughing, catching up and telling the others of what had happened that hadn’t been shared yet. To the crew’s joy, all three of their faces lit up as they were talking to each other.

Once again, making all of them happy that Marineford hadn’t turned out the way they had all feared it would, Ace made it – but the article in the newspaper made Sabo remember and talk to Robin when he found out she was a member of Luffy’s crew.

The ASL brothers reunited on the island Rayleigh was training Luffy, giving for one emotional reunion.

Now, seeing them together once more, as had happened every few months, now that they knew all of them were alive, they wanted to be sure all of them indeed were and spend time together.

The splash was their first sign, the Straw Hats looking for who had gone overboard, and paled at seeing Luffy not sitting in between his brothers, Ace and Sabo both looking at the sea with wide eyes.

Then, to their astonishment, Ace pressed his hat into Sabo’s hands and JUMPED overboard.

The idiot, who also ate a devil fruit, just jumped overboard, most likely because he was used to doing so from their childhood.

Sabo chocked, before pressing Ace’s hat and his own into the hands of the person closest to him, which happened to be Usopp. Taking off his jacket and jumping after his brothers.

This made all of them choke, Sabo had eaten a Devil fruit, just over a year ago, one they had found on a mission to the revery, it turned out to be something similar to Ace’s in that it was a fire type of fruit, but instead of it being the fire logia fruit, this one was a mythical Zoan fruit based off of a western dragon which spit fire.

It took all of the Straw Hats a moment to process that all three of the brothers went overboard, two of them by their own choice, and all of them were devil fruit users.

Jinbei the fastest swimmer, cursed before hurling himself overboard, still cursing as he hit the water – he just had to have a stupid captain, a stupid friend, and their stupid brother.

Coming up after what seemed an eternity, he was carrying all three of them. Sabo and Ace under his arms, while Luffy has swung over his shoulder. Zoro and Sanji threw a rope towards him and pulled him up.

Sighing, they waited until the brothers woke up, meaning to chew them out just for this stunt. Seriously, how does one forget they are a devil fruit user. Chopper had checked them out, and deemed them alright with no water in their lungs – as they waited for all three of them to wake up.

Robin dialled up Koala, to let her chew out her boyfriend fer being way to reckless. Nami had done to the same to the Whitebeard’s main number, to ask for Marco – but not before telling Haruta about what had happened – if Ace wanted to be stupid, she would make sure his whole crew new and could remind him of it.

Finally getting Marco on the phone, she explained to the blond what had happened, hearing the First division commander sigh at the antics of his boyfriend.

As luck would have it, the Polar Tang popped up, with Law using his own devil fruit to teleport over to the Sunny, looking at his boyfriend, and brothers-in-law, he turned to Chopper and asked what happened.

When Chopper explained just what had happened with the brothers, he used his devil fruit again – a minor version of Radio knife, to zap them, and wake them up, all three of them groaning before looking at their crew/little brother’s crew, or boyfriend/brother-in-law.

Nami and Robin used this moment to hand the Den-Den to the older brothers, watching with a smile on their face as their own significant others tore into them for being reckless, Law doing the same thing to Luffy. Seriously, it was never dull when all the brothers were together on a ship – or in the revolutionary base, but then again, no one would want it any other way.


	10. You're alive!?

Ace was looking at the flyer he was holding in his hands, his hands which were shaking as he looked at what was spelled out on the flyer he was holding – not wanting, or knowing how, he could believe this was real.

The flyer invited everyone to compete in a game in Dressrosa, with the prize being the Mera-Mera no mi, it made him rub a hand over his chest, where at one point, there had been a hole in his chest – all the way through.

He could still feel Akainu’s fist going through him, he remembered the things he told Luffy, when he passed out – and according to Shanks, died – for a small amount of time. But he woke up again, on the Red Force, where Shanks had told him he was taking him away. That according to everyone he knew Gol D. Ace was dead to the world.

“I had seen how your wounds were closing ever so slowly, so I knew that you weren’t really dead. Or wouldn’t stay dead, but for you to be able to heal and get stronger we need the world to think you are.”

He remembers raving, and ranting to the older man, demanding he let him go, so he could see Luffy, could kiss Marco again, and assure his family that he was indeed alive, and not dead like everyone thought.

He remembers just collapsing, not knowing what he could do, no one knew he was still alive and could help with whatever they wanted to do. His things, or a replica of them, had been left on the grave Shanks had dug for him. And for Oyaji and hadn’t that been a bitter pill to swallow - to know that the Marine’s plan had succeeded, and they had eliminated Oyaji.

But seeing this now, reminded about the fact that he had died, even if it was just for a few seconds, it had been enough for the entity of the Mera-Mera to leave his body and search for another fruit to inhabit.

But with him coming back to live, he had kept his Devil fruit powers in the way they had been before, only, now there would be two people who would become a fire logia.

Making his way towards the captain’s cabin of the Red Force, he knocked and waited for Shanks to open up the door, or to call for him to enter.

As he finally could enter, he saw Shanks and Benn sitting there bend over the same flyer he had picked up from the last island they had stopped at. He had been disguised of course, no reason to let Shanks multiple year plan just fall into the water – not when his Father’s cabin boy had done absolutely everything to make sure he survived and gave him time to recover and get stronger.

Shanks sighed, as he saw what ace was holding, “I was hoping you would have seen that.”

Ace sputtered, “so, if I didn’t see this for myself, you wouldn’t have told me?”

Shanks ran his one good hand through his hair, “no, I wouldn’t. But Ace, you have to see it from my point of view, our point of view, the world thinks you dead – and this is the best way for the world to keep thinking that.”

Ace scoffed, “aren’t you forgetting something, at least some people are going to go after the Mera-Mera, even if I still have the powers, another person can now be like that too. If it isn’t Marco, or Luffy, you can bet one of Blackbeard’s men is going to go after it.

And I won’t stand for that, I have been keeping quiet, and making sure no one recognized me as Portgas D. Ace, I won’t keep quiet when I know for sure my lover or my brother is going to be there to try and win this so they can keep a piece of me close to them.”

Shanks looked away, a frown on his face.

Benn sighed, looking from his captain, to Ace, “we just don’t want to see you die, for real this time, Ace, I hope you can understand that at least, we did all this – and kept it quiet even from Marco and Luffy, to protect you, and to be able to protect you. We want to keep doing that, both because of what your parents meant to the Captain, but also because what you have been coming to mean to us.”

Ace looked away now, he hated it when Benn made sense, it was easy to see that while Shanks was undoubtedly the muscle of the crew – one arm less or not, Benn was without a doubt the brain.

Clenching his hands, he answered, “I understand perfectly fine, I just don’t agree with it! I am sick and tired of just staying on the Red force, reading articles of what happened to my Nakama, as well as read just what Teach is doing with his newfound emperor status. 

All the while, I am hiding away from the world for 2 years, leaving behind everyone I ever loved, because you both tell me this is the best thing I can do. I’m sick of it! I… I want to be there for them, and make sure Luffy is fine after everything that happened. I want to see Marco, and the others again, without feeling guilty like I am now, for staying hidden.”

Shanks looked up, “then what would you like to do.”

Ace sighed, “drop me off at the island I am supposedly buried, I know Marco will be there, give me a chance to explain. After that I want to go to Dressrosa and kick everyone except Luffy away from the new Mera-Mera no mi, he’ll find a worthy user for it – but no stranger should share that with me.”

Sighing, Shanks nodded, “then that’s what we’ll do, 2 years has been quite some time. But I will warn you, Marco was devastated at your loss, as was Luffy from what I heard.”

Ace nodded, “I figured.”

Standing there in front of what should have been his grave, he was shocked to see the fresh flowers sitting there, as well as an article of Luffy setting out to sea again – it did make him smile. The tree sake cups made him look up, he never knew Luffy made it to this island – but someone made it here and knew the significance of those cups.

Shaking his head, he refused to belief that Sabo had survived being blown up, the only blond brother couldn’t have survived all this.

That was until a voice in his head reminded him that he should be alive either, yet here he was – standing in front of his own grave at that. Hoping to see his lover, before he chased after his brother and helped him get another worthy user of the Mera-Mera no mi.

Hearing the flapping of wings, he turned slightly and could see a blue shape flying towards him – a smile made his way onto his face, even if this confrontation would be anything but happy, he still looked forward to seeing Marco again after 2 years.

Hearing the sandaled feet hitting the ground, he turned more, glad for the cloak covering him and concealing his identity – he ‘d rather have a change to explain this instead of getting attacked by Marco for whatever reason the blond would find for him standing there looking like himself.

“This is private burial ground – yoi.”

Ace had to frown at his tired Marco sounded, the other man always was so full of positive vibes, and never sounded tired – he was notoriously on board the Moby Dick for taking night shifts and still be up at his usual hour without ever looking like he just had taken a night’s watch.

Turning back to his grave he said, “I know, but I wanted to see you.”

A chocking sound told him that Marco had recognized his voice.

“Before you attack me, I never died, and Shanks kept it under wraps to give me a chance to heal and to get stronger. I didn’t wake up until about 6 months after Marineford, just in time for the Payback War, for which I wasn’t strong enough.

I wanted to see you to at least give you a way to say goodbye, before I set out to Dressrosa, the Mera-Mera no mi is given away as a prize there, and I refuse to let anyone but Luffy or one of his get to it.”

Turning again, Ace took of the hood of his cloak and looking at Marco – who looked terrible, the bags under his eyes were bigger than they ever were. His clothes rumbled and missing their signature flair and purple.

“You look terrible.”

The older man took a few strides to stand in front of him, Ace already preparing for whatever was coming, which he didn’t need to, as the blond took a hold of his face and rested his forehead on his.

“You’re really here -yoi.”

Ace nodded, “I am, really here, Marco. I am so sorry for everything I missed, and for what I put you through.”

Hands pressed against his cheeks, stroked through his hair and felt at his chest, not feeling a hole in there – like there had been at Marineford.

“I had hoped -yoi. When your other brother appeared here a few weeks ago, that you too would have survived -yoi.”

Ace looked up, “Sabo…”

Marco nodded, “he survived -yoi. He didn’t give me the details, but between him and knowing what Luffy has manages to accomplish, I started to hope -yoi.”

Ace smiled, “you placed your hopes on the right thing then, I did survive.”

Marco just nodded, before tilting Ace’s head up and pressing his lips to his.

Telling Marco in detail, what he wanted to do, had the blond packing his meagre belongings to come with him. Explaining that he stayed there to protect Oyaji’s greatest treasure – his home island – but with it only being in danger from weevil and the man thinking that Oyaji’s fortune was a physical thing.

Something he tried to find by going after the people once being part of his crew, Marco explained it didn’t matter if he stayed here Sphinx or traveling with Ace – and after the years he had, he wanted to be with Ace for as long as possible.

Them getting to Dressrosa, wasn’t a problem, not when Marco could fly them there. It also cut their travel time in half, with them not taking to the water – but using the air.

When they arrived on Dressrosa however, they only had a moment to fly inside, and get in before the wires closed around them. Ace made sure he was covered, to make it to the centre of the island before he was recognized. Marco likewise made sure to put on a disguise, he might not be active anymore, a lot of people know who Marco the Phoenix was.

Doflamingo’s face appearing on the screens around the city, telling them if they killed certain people, he would stop the process of the Birdcage, otherwise they would all get killed. The laugh the Shichibukai left out at that send chills over Marco and Ace’s back – they had never liked the blond bastard.

The names and faces of those people appearing had Ace shocking, seeing just who was being shown as a top tier opponent, and seeing just how much Sabo had changed in the years they hadn’t seen each other. His other brother looked good, as did Luffy – who he hadn’t seen for two years. He couldn’t wait to see them again.

The following hours were spend helping civilians they came across in getting to the centre of the island, and away from the advancing edges of the Birdcage. All the while both of them kept an eye out for a Straw Hat Pirate, or Luffy, or Sabo.

Seeing something rocketing in the sky, made them realise they had found Luffy, the youngest brother taking the fight to Doflamingo in an effort to protect the people of Dressrosa, as well as making the shichibukai ack of from his ally – Trafalgar Law.

Seeing his little brother, had Ace laughing, and looking as the shichibukai was getting his ass kicked be a pirate much younger than him.

However, he could see Luffy slowing down, could see what this gear fourth did to his body, so when he released the change it did to his body, Ace was running towards the place the other dark haired young man was falling towards, Marco close on his heels.

It filled him with joy as he saw the other contestants of the fights taking on Doflamingo so Luffy could have time to recuperate his strength. The commentator taking Luffy on his back to get him away from the fight, wanting to protect the one beacon of hope his people had right now.

As the group ran away from the fight, he and Marco followed, still at a distance. However, what followed next was what made him reveal himself.

Seeing Burgess standing there, trying to get to Luffy – only to be thwarted by Sabo, it made his cheer. Making all of them look up.

Burgess made use of this to thrust his fist to Sabo, the blond getting surprised and would have been hit, and wounded, had Marco not gotten between the two of them, one foot changed in a claw that pinned Burgess wrist to the ground.

The Blackbeard Pirate grinned, “come to avenge Ace, First commander.”

Marco scoffed, before turning back, “I take it you want a piece of this?”

This had everyone looking back to where Ace was standing, he nodded and started walking forward – letting his flames eat away at the cloak he was wearing, seeing the disappear in Burgess’s eyes, as well as the hope in both Sabo and Luffy.

“I would love that.”

Marco chuckled and let the other pirate go, while he went and checked on Luffy, using his flames to speed up his recovery – the others around them just looking as the three brothers reunited, while Ace and Sabo worked together to make sure Blackbeard’s forces were thinned.

As soon as the scumbag was taken care off, Ace was wrapped up in a hug from both sides, part of him grumbling at noticing that Sabo had a few centimetres on him, but he dismissed that thought knowing that this didn’t matter – seeing both of them again after all these years more then made up for that.

He accompanied Sabo after that, and looked on as Luffy kicked a shichibukai’s ass, winning against the man, and freeing Dressrosa from his rule, giving it back to the royal family.

Finding out Sabo wanted to leave without saying goodbye to Luffy had him vetoing the idea, he wanted to have some time with his brothers after so long. Sabo finally agreed, even if the redhead woman he was with didn’t approve, she relented when Ace promised to get him back to wherever he needed to be.

Opening the door and seeing the other Straw Hats, had him smiling as they all gaped at him – believing him dead like everyone else. He promised to explain as soon as Luffy woke up. Sabo settled down next to him, Marco on his other side – but only after the oldest blond made sure to check up on everyone. This made Ace smile – his lover would always be a doctor, no matter the situation.

That morning, Luffy flung himself over them, like he did when he was a child, hugging them close and crying all over them at seeing them all together. Their breakfast was accompanied by them telling what had happened. Starting with Sabo and his amnesia, over to Luffy’s 2 year training trip and ending with Ace’s survival but also him going into hiding.

Hearing that Luffa planned on going to Wano in the near future, he looked at Marco and both of them asked to be able to accompany them on that trip – to fulfil a promise Ace made to someone in Wano once upon a time.


	11. Introducing Law to Ace and Sabo

After Marineford, it took a while for Ace and Luffy to see each other again, after all both of them were wounded pretty bad. Bad enough that Luffy was whisked away by someone else from the Worst Generation – a Surgeon, if Ace remembered correctly, who did help Luffy recover from the blows he had received from Akainu.

Ace on the other hand, had been taken away by Marco, the Whitebeard’s first commander and head doctor, had followed their father’s dying wish and got everyone out of there. After that, he put Ace on bed rest to deal with the trauma his abdomen had to go trough after taking a hit from Akainu.

Adding to that, that in Dressrosa it came out that Sabo had been alive all along, even if the man hadn’t remembered them – which hurt, to think that their brother didn’t remember them. But then again head trauma could do that to a person. After Ace found out that Sabo had amnesia, Marco explained it to him in terms he could understand.

While it hurt to think his brother dead for 12 years, they had finally gotten into contact, with both Luffy and Sabo and arranged to meet.

To be honest, Ace was nervous for that, not only would he finally see both his younger brothers again, but he would also be able to check on Luffy, seeing as he never was able to after Marineford, when his brother had taken away in critical condition.

To be finally able to meet up and catch up with both of them, was something that he looked forward to. 

Sabo couldn’t believe that after all this time he remembered his brothers again – he had hated himself at first for forgetting them, he still didn’t know how he had been able to remember the disgust he felt at the Goa kingdom, but he didn’t remember his brothers and the amazing times they had together.

Not only that, but it had taken both of them almost dying before his memories came back. 

Now, to have a chance, to reconnect with both of them, was something he had dreamt off since he had remembered again. Even more so now that he knew both of them were alright, and while he had a short meeting with Luffy in Dressrosa, it wasn’t the same as being able to reconnect on the lever they had as children.

Ever since he remembered, he wanted to go back to that one moment in time, to the time they drank sake to declare themselves as brothers, with the memories he now had, he was finally able to say that those were some of the best of his life – even better then his days at the Revolutionary Army.

Luffy was bouncing in place, looking forward to the seeing his older brothers again. It had been since Marineford since he saw Ace, and while he saw Sabo in Dressrosa and spoke to the blond, it wasn’t the same – not in the way he wanted to talk to both of them again.

But now he would get that chance, to see his big brothers again, without the change of anything going wrong. After 12 years the ASL-brothers would finally be together again – and might just remind the world wat a force they were together.

Looking at the person standing behind him, he had to smile at the man that had saved him after Marineford, and who had become his ally in the New World – which had only grown until they were far more than allies after Wano.

He hoped to be able to introduce Law to his brothers as his boyfriend, especially now that they would see each other again after so long. Maybe they would also have a special person in their life. It would be great to share that with the others.

Meeting again was as if those 12 years had never happened, all three of them were grinning as their crews waited a little while away while the brothers met again. The hug that followed was something that had them laughing within moments, not believing that they were together again.

As soon as that was past, Ace made sure to look at his brothers, frowning at the scar now on Luffy’s chest, as well as the scars he could see on Sabo’s face, neck and which would no doubt stretch over the left side of his body.

Sabo just took the time to take both his brothers in again, both of them had changed a lot in these years past, yet in some ways they hadn’t changed one bit. Both of them looked the same, if only taller and broader, with Ace being a whole lot politer then he had been as a child, Luffy seemed to finally have learned to think before he acted – even fi that might just be dependent on what was happening around him.

Luffy just grinned and looked at his big brothers, making sure to be touching one of them every possible moment, either by hugging one or both of them, or taking one of their hands, he even jumped up on Ace’s back at one point while his older brothers were talking. 

The other black haired brother shifting e bit and hooking his arms around Luffy’s knees before he continued his conversation with Sabo.

In time, their crews started mingling too, getting to know the others, or in some cases catching up with people they already knew.

As such, Koala, Marco, and Law drifted through the different crews before coming to a stand still next to their partner. A smile on all three of their faces at seeing the joy on their significant others.

Luffy noticed them first and grinned widely, wiggling to be let down from Ace’s back, before he approached Law and took a hold of his hand.

This of course had both of his brothers stopping their conversation to look around and grin at their own lovers, before glancing at Luffy and seeing him next to someone both of them recognized as the Surgeon-of-Death.

Luffy beamed at his brothers, “Ace, Sabo, meet Law, he saved me after Marineford, and we became allies after I went into the New World after 2 years, and now he’s my boyfriend.”

Before either brother could say something stupid, both their lovers intervened, smiling, and introducing themselves, before glaring at the older brothers.

Ace and Sabo sighed, knowing that the others were right, and they had no reason to overreact, Luffy was after all 19, and they hadn’t been there for each other for years, so in a way it was normal for Luffy to have found a lover – even if his older brothers kept thinking of him as that small kid who couldn’t throw a punch, or who had to be watched over at all times.

Luckily with the help of Marco and Koala, all 6 of them got to talking, getting to know each other, and in the case of the partners, a glimpse at the family they were willingly entering ‘it would only get worse when Garp got the news that all three of his grandson’s were alive and in a relationship.)


	12. Trans!Ace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by [ Chengmei ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chengmei/pseuds/Chengmei)
> 
> Is sort of a prequel to [ Chapter 12 ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28465962/chapters/72860523) of Life on Board the Moby Dick.

Ace frowned as he looked down at the tub that served as their bathtub, not knowing what he needed to do now. Before it had been just him and Luffy, and the younger boy never noticed anything odd about him. Such were the joys of having a brother that didn’t care about the normal going on in life, who was more concerned with how amazing his older brothers were, and how much meat he could eat in one sitting.

But he knew Sabo would, Sabo was smart, and had an education. In the past that had been the reason he liked Sabo around so much, the blond boy was smart, a quick thinker and a heavy hitter – perfect to have as his companion on the Grey Terminal.

But now Sabo also lived together with them at Dandan’s, and would he need to be told about the one secret Ace had kept from him – hadn’t dared telling him in the fear of the blond treating him any different, which was something he couldn’t bear right now.

The blond was his best friend, his brother, just as much as Luffy was, and Luffy never made a big deal out of it (most likely because he didn’t understand, or wanted to understand), so why would Sabo be any different.

Sighing, the oldest took off his clothes and san, into the tub, looking up as the silence that fell on the conversation Sabo and Luffy were having, the blond boy looking at him with wide eyes – they travelled down to what he knew was between his legs.

Looking away a scowl and a blush made their way onto his face, the silence getting uncomfortable as he braced himself for the outburst that would no doubt follow now that Sabo had seen.

Had seen that Ace had been born into the wrong body, and while he acted like a boy and wanted to be one so badly, he had originally been named Ann, with everything associated with a girl attached. Even though he hated it, and had Gramps call him Ace from the moment he realised what he felt and wanted.

Oddly enough, the old man hadn’t had a problem with it, most likely seeing it as an extra way to hide just who he was from the world that wanted him dead.

However, Sabo’s outburst never came. At the prolonged silence, Ace once again look at the blond boy, who had gone back to his conversation with Luffy, smiling and laughing at something the other was saying.

Not totally comfortable, but now knowing not a lot would change between them, Ace cleaned himself, got out and got dressed again. Leaving the other two to finish their bath.

Later that night, after Luffy had gone to sleep, Sabo took a seat next to him.

“So…”

Ace looked at him, a scowl once again making its way onto his face, for which Sabo only laughed.

“There’s nothing wrong with being born into the wrong body, you know, you’re still our brother and nothing would change that.”

Ace just sighed, folded his arms onto the window seal and rested his head onto it.

“Most people that find out, freak out about it. I know Dandan did.”

Sabo shrugged, “I read about it, you know, people who are born into the wrong bodies. They are called trangender, or trans, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. There are even drugs that make sure you don’t go through puberty as much as you would without the drugs.

I don’t know how you get those, but we can find out together. I don’t think Luffy really understands what is going on, so just know that I am here for you and I want to make sure we find out what it is we need to do so you’re comfortable in your own body.”

Without saying anything, Ace lifted his head from his arms and wrapped his arms around Sabo, “thank you.”

The blond just smiled, the missing tooth standing out even more in the light of the moon outside.

“Sure, no problem.”

When a couple of months later Sabo died, Ace hadn’t known what to do with himself, Sabo had promised they would find out together what it was they needed to do. 

Now, without the blond, he was at a loss as to what steps he needed to take to get where he wanted to be. Even more so when he heard from girls around town that some of them got their periods at 11, which was almost his age – and was something he wanted to skip as soon as possible.

Looking and trying to find what he needed to do, led to Luffy finally listening to what was happening and what he needed so Ace could feel good (better – he’d never feel good) about himself.

Which lead them to Makino, and the older sister figure with the patience of a saint, who helped him get an appointment with the local psychiatrist, to determine just what was going on and if he should be put on puberty blockers now, which would become a hormone treatment as he turned 16.

He really hoped so, as this was what he wanted, and he hoped the doctor saw it like that too.

At 17, setting out, Ace couldn’t help but smile widely as he waved at Luffy and Makino as they said their goodbyes.

In his bag was a list of doctors on the Grand line that would be able to give him top surgery, which he was looking forward too. The binder he wore now was hidden by the yellow shirt he wore, but he knew that he would be even happier when he could leave that all behind.

Smiling up, he thought about his blond brother, who sadly couldn’t make this journey with him. But who had helped in him finding what he needed to do, to feel like his body was his own.


	13. Alliance of the in-laws (modern AU)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this falls within the same universe as my modern AU new beginnings, but is readable without having read it.

Law was cursing as he made his way through the hospital, he had been later than he had wanted to be, all because a hit-and-run had taken place not far from the hospital, stopping traffic and making him late to work.

Pulling the doctor’s coat over his shoulders, he was still grumbling as a nurse approached him.

“Sir, one of the patients from the hit and run is in examine room 2, Doctor Q treated him, but the young man should have woken up by now, as he only had a minor concussion, but it’s been 2 hours and it seems to be that he has slipped in a coma.”

Law frowned, that was indeed not right, especially as a person with a concussion had to be kept awake. Following the nurse, he listened as she told him whatever she knew, and with each word, the dread he was feeling in his stomach was worsening.

When the curtain was pulled away to reveal a freckled, black-haired young man, wearing something orange, Law grinded his teeth, turning to the nurse and asking, “has someone called his next of kin.”

As the nurse shook her head, Law hummed, that would be two streaks against this Doctor Q, taking the chart at the end of the bed, he hummed again, moved to the IV and stopped the drip, much to the shock of the nurse.

Turning to her, he said, “get me this Doctor Q here right now, he has quite the explanation to do. Also, could you give me his personal belongings?”

The nurse nodded, before she stopped, “Doctor, do you know what is wrong with him?”

Law nodded, “he’s on a specific anti-narcoleptic drug, however this Doctor Q obviously didn’t look through Ace-ya’s medical history if he just gave him these painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, as they are known to react badly with the medication he’s already taken, and has on record that he is taken.”

As the nurse gasped and left, most likely to fetch Doctor Q, who was in for quite the trouble, especially with the next call Law would make. Ruffling through Ace’s stuff, he found the other man’s phone with several missed calls from the Whitebeards, as well as several more texts from Marco, Luffy and Sabo.

Opening his own phone, he selected the contact he wanted to call and pressed the green phone icon.

Not even two rings passed, before a familiar voice sounded through.

“Newgate -yoi.”

“Marco-ya, It’s Law, Ace-ya was in a hit-and-run this morning and some idiot doctor gave him medication that interacts badly with his narco meds, think you can come on down with the brother who handles legal and deal with this?”

The line stayed quiet for a moment, before Marco’s voice sounded through, “we’ll be right there, thanks for calling, Law -yoi.”

Law huffed, “we’re marrying into this crazy family, Marco-ya, might as well stick together.”

Laughter met him through the phone before the call ended.

Looking at the clock, he figured he might be in luck, he’d need an impartial doctor to contatate the same thing he did, for this to be a case against this Doctor Q, it also just so happens that his parents were in town for a conference, and had never met any of their crazy family.

Looking for his dad’s contact, he pressed the call button again.

“Law! This is a surprise!”

He grimaced, “hi dad, I had hoped to see you in better circumstances, but are you and mom still in town?”

he heard his father hum, so he explained what was happening, and what he needed to be sure this doctor would get a disciplinary sanction at the very least. If no one had noticed, the consequences of the mixing of the two drugs might have a more dier outcome.

He heard his parents converse, before he heard his dad again, “I’ll be there in 10 minutes, your mother and Rosi are joining me though.”

At hearing that last name, Law’s eyes widened, Rosinante, his former babysitter - in more than one life - would be coming with. He hadn’t seen the other man since he moved to the city, but knew that Luffy would call this man his nakama, and as such as soon as the man saw him he would remember.

Shaking his head, that would have to wait, for now he needed to make some more calls, to make sure everyone knew just what was happening - even if he was dreading making the call to Sabo and Luffy.

Selecting another contact, he called, relieved to hear her voice through the earpiece, “Revolutionary Law, Koala speaking.”

Sighing, he spoke, “Koala-ya, it’s Law, something happened to Ace-ya, do you think you can tell Dragon-san and Sabo-ya and come here? He should be fine, but another doctor made a mistake with his meds and I know Sabo-ya and Luffy-ya would want to be here.”

A gasp told him that she had heard, the affirmative humming letting him know that Sabo was most likely close, so she didn’t answer so the blond didn’t freak out. He had after all seen the side of Sabo who’d do anything for his brothers, and they didn’t need that right now. What they needed was the man dubbed gentleman Sabo, who could use his silver tongue to get whatever it was he wanted - and right now they wanted to know what this doctor had done to Ace, and why.

Selecting the last contact, he bit his lip as he hated that he needed to do this, he’d love to tell Luffy himself, but by doing so over the phone his boyfriend would only overreact, if he wouldn’t do so already after hearing something had happened to Ace.

Ever since coming back, and going through therapy, they all knew that the brothers would do anything for the other, especially seeing how their lives ended the last time, to have to live through that would be something none of them would survive.

“Zoro.”

Sighing, he spoke, “Zoro-ya, I need you to bring Lu to the hospital, something happened to Ace, and he will pull through, it is nothing serious, but there will be an investigation, both because some doctor screwed up, but also because Ace-ya was in a hit-and-run.”

A curse was his only answer, before the line went dead, for all that Zoro was a man of few words, there was no doubt in is loyalty towards Luffy, even in this, he trusted the other man to tell Luffy what had happened and to keep the younger grounded until they got here. Not for the first time Law thanked the Straw Hats for being who they are, and looking after their captain even in this life.

Seeing that the drip had been emptied out, he distangled it from the IV and called a nurse to bring him some that he knew would work with the meds Ace took. He took care in putting the bag that had been attached before to the side, so his parents, and most likely the police could look at them.

He didn’t kid himself, by now someone must have called either Shanks, who was a detective, or Garp, who was a police commissioner. Both would be here in 10 minutes or less, depending if they were home or if they were at the station.

\---

The nurse he sent out entered the closed off section again, pale in her face as she approached, “doctor Trafalgar, I cannot find Doctor Q anywhere, not only that, but I went and asked HR, they told me there was never such a person employed here.”

Law hissed, “so we’re dealing with a felony.”

A voice sounded by the curtain, “luckily we arrived then.”

Looking up, he was met with Marco, Vista and Shanks standing there, the blond making his way towards the side of the bed and touching Ace on the cheek, most likely to get rid of the notion that this was Marine Ford again.

Touching his fellow doctor on the shoulder, he handed the blond the hospital chart, the blond nodded before looking it over with Vista, who came to stand next to him.

Shanks in the meantime approached Law and the nurse, nodding to the redhead, Law started talking, before mentioning to the nurse that she should share her side of the story too. Which she did, even if she kept on glancing at Marco and Vista.

As they finished, Law turned to her, “do you have an idea who the blond is?”

The nurse shook her head, biting his lip, “I don’t think it matters who he is, Doctor, as far as I know it isn’t customary to give visitors such confidential information on patients.”

Shanks barked out a laugh, “Lady, that’s Marco Newgate, he is one of the best doctor’s around. Even aside from that, the patient in question is his fiance, he has every right to look into those files.”

While the nurse gasped at the blond on the chair, Shanks went into the hallway to make some calls, no doubt to put out an APB on this Doctor Q, who most likely wasn’t a doctor (anymore). Law also suspected that Shanks would call Rayleigh and Garp to keep them posted on what was happening.

Looking up again, he saw his parents enter the ER, Rosi coming in behind them, the large blond stopped and stared at Law as he approached and welcomed his parents in the hospital, he brought them up to speed and apologized that this wasn’t an internal matter but a felony, so their expertises weren’t needed.

They both waved him away, before turning to the supervisor of the ER department and offered their services, seeing as they were here anyway. The man in question, didn’t think twice in thanking them profusely for this and led them away to where their patients chart was kept.

Approaching Rosinante as his parents left, he wasn’t shocked at all at the arms that hugged him close, “Law.”

He hugged back, “hi Cora-san, you remember.”

The man nodded, “I do, and I am so very proud of you, both for what you did before, as well as what you are doing right now. I’m glad that you found a family after all, especially after you lost me.”

Law smiled sadly, “it wasn’t easy, but you’ll meet Luffy-ya in a bit, you’ll understand then that he’s like a fungus that refuses to let go of you when he attaches.”

Rosinante smiled, “I noticed as I was watching over you, that he and you, were quite attached to each other.”

Law nodded, “we still are, only this time is easier, as we’re in a much stabler climate right now, and we have this huge backing from all sides.”

Rosinante nodded, “I heard, your parents were excited to know that you have so many people around you, and even friends, and a boyfriend that mean the world to you. They had feared you would be alone for a long time, as you were quite the silent type as a kid. To hear you have connections, even contacting them to write a letter of recommendation for your friend, they knew everything would be fine.”

Before Law could say anything, he was tackled to the side, grateful for Rosinante’s help in staying upright, looking down however, he sighed and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

“Come on, Luffy-ya, let’s go and see Ace-ya, he’s fine, really, might even be waking up already, and if not he will in the next hour.”

He could feel Luffy nodding into his side, so he led the younger man over to the closed off area Ace was occupying, making his way through the curtains, he found Shanks there taking over Luffy, shushing his pseudo-nephew.

He could see the looks Marco and Shanks exchanged, before the youngest was dropped into the blond’s lap so he could hold Ace’s hand as the others looked over everything from the chart, the file he could see laying on the bed and the security footage he could see playing on the tabled Shanks was holding. Part of the Strawhats were entering as well, Sanji and Zoro taking their place up by the wall.

By the way the other blond was talking into the phone, he was most likely talking to his siblings in helping the search for this Doctor Q fellow. Reiju might be the only one to remember, the other 3 boys of the quadruplets had retained some of their knowledge and had gone into private investigation - which came in handy in situations like this.

Nodding to Zoro, he entered the lobby again to actually start his shift, luckily his parents were there to help out too, as it seemed that several other staff members were missing or late - so they had been understaffed, until the legendary Trafalgar couple swept in.

\--

When he entered Ace’s room later that day, the man had been moved to make room for others coming into the ER. He found the oldest brother to be awake, if a bit lethargic. Marco, Sabo and Luffy were close to him, with only Sabo using the chair, while the other two were sitting on the bed.

At the way he could see Usopp and Nami standing, no doubt having taken over from Zoro and Sanji to watch over their captain in this time of need. It helped that they were all close, and as such were probably worried about Ace as well.

Vista, Koala, Shanks and Reiju were standing by the window, all of them either on their tablet or their phone, keeping track of the search for the doctor that did this, intentionally to Ace, he had to grin, if this person was found he’s experience first hand just how protective they all were of the three brothers. Sharing a look with Marco and Koala, he had to smile, especially the in-laws - they were a family after all.

When the call did come in that they had found this person, and had run him by the databases, it was found that this was a serial killer whose MO was impersonating a doctor, before ‘treating’ someone with a minor injury, that would and could be treated in half an hour, and making sure they left the hospital in a body bag. The FBI had already called to thank them for helping them capture this person, but for them all that mattered was that Ace was alright, and they - as they always did - helped people.


	14. Together again

Ace winced as Luffy rocketed himself towards him, wrapping his arms at least 3 times around his torso, before hiding his face into Ace’s still bandaged chest. The hot tears he could feel soaking the bandaging didn’t help with how guilty he was feeling for keeping his survival a secret.

To be honest, he had been in a coma for over 6 months, and needed to rehabilitate after that, as most of his muscles had disappeared from inactivity. Not only that, but the hit had taken a lot out of him. Marco told him that he had a hole in his chest that should have killed him - but in between Ace’s natural stubbornness and Marco’s healing, coupled with Ace’s fire, the hole had closed and Ace had kept breathing - even if it was so very shallow at some points.

But anyway, he and Marco had made their way to Dressrosa the moment they heard what has been going on there, hoping that they would still be on time to see Luffy. To explain, and to comfort the younger boy that Ace was alright - or well on the way to allright.

Hushing a sobbing Luffy, Ace didn’t know what he could do, except hold his younger brother as the younger let out all his grief. A soft look was in Ace’s eyes as he looked at the black hair moving with Luffy’s movements, he had missed this, ever since he left Dawn, he had missed Luffy so much.

Seeing the younger in Alabasta was a blast, even if he wished it could have lasted longer.

Their meeting in Marineford wasn’t anything he wanted to think about, as the last words he had uttered then were ‘thank you for loving me’.

Which he still couldn’t believe he did, Luffy’s greatest fear after they lost Sabo, was that he might lose Ace too, so for him to have ‘died’ in front of his baby brother must have been so traumatising. 

Luffy had stopped sobbing now, even if he was still crying, giving Ace a chance to make out the words that the younger was uttering.

“Ace… Alive, Sabo… Alive, Happy… together.”

Ace blinked, “Lu, what do you mean Sabo is alive?”

Luffy pulled back a little bit, tears still running down his face, “Sabo survived… he just had am… an… amesia, or something. But he remembered because you died, and now you’re both here again.”

Ace hummed, “amnesia…”

Luffy nodded, his face again hidden in his chest.

Ace sighed, he had never dared to imagine that their blond brother would survive the whole ordeal, after all, how Dagura had told them all that there had been two shots fired at the little boat Sabo had stolen to set out to sea, making him belief no one could survive that.

But it would seem that sabo did survive it, against all odds, not that Ace wasn’t glad, but he would have been happier knowing that all a lot sooner.

As he heard snoring, he looked down and saw Luffy leaning against him, exhausted from fighting Doflamingo. Pulling the younger man closer and rearranging him in his lap, Ace sat back and waited for either Marco, Luffy’s crew or Sabo, apparently, to find them.

\--

Sabo knew he was going to be yelled at, but Luffy hadn’t been seen since his victory over Doflamingo, and he was getting worried. So he set out to find his younger brother. 

Running through the streets, looking around and using his observation haki in an attempt to find the hero of Dressrosa (not that Luffy wanted to be called a hero, but then again, so was life).

After running around for almost 2 hours, his haki pinged, letting him know Luffy was nearby, so he slowed down and made his way towards a collapsed house where he could feel the other. Entering however made him on edge as there was another person with Luffy, cradling him close as the younger slept.

Getting his pipe from his back, he approached, “I don’t know who you are, but release Straw Hat Luffy.”

The person holding him scoffed, before turning and making Sabo look into a face he wasn’t sure he would ever see again. Letting go of his pipe, making it clatter to the ground, Sabo took a step closer. Getting onto his knees as he touched a freckled cheek.

“You’re really here.”

Ace nodded, “I could say the same for you.”

A tear made its way over Sabo’s cheek as he hugged Ace around the shoulders, mindful of Luffy asleep in the eldest lap. As he heard a wince, he noticed the bandages wrapped around the other’s torso.

“You’re still hurt?”

Ace nodded, “still tender, I’m on the mend, but I did have a fist trust through me, wouldn’t recommend that, by the way.”

Sabo gave a wet chuckle as he gathered his pipe, before detangling Luffy from Ace and carrying their younger brother as Ace got up very slowly, seemingly very careful of his upper body.

“You ok?”

Ace nodded, “just give me a moment, I only recently finished the revalidation Marco had me on, and I am nowhere cleared for fighting again, but I can move around, I just need a moment.”

Sabo nodded, hovering over the eldest of their brotherhood, shifting Luffy slightly so he could catch Ace, should he fall.

As Ace finally rightened himself, using Sabo’s shoulder to lean on, the blond spoke, “I know Lu’s crew is going to have a heart attack seeing you alive again.”

Ace snorted, “they have Luffy as a captain, they have a heart attack every day.”

Sabo hummed, “point.”

Still carrying Luffy, they made their way towards the house the Straw Hats were hiding in, meeting Marco on the way, they were met with quite a few disbelieving faces. They could all care less however, as the ASL-brothers were together again.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [ discord channel ](https://discord.gg/ZQgS86qj4J)
> 
> Or send me an email: lerya.fanfic@gmail.com
> 
> Or find me on [ tumblr ](www.lerya-fanfic.tumblr.com)


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